Clinical nursing leadership is critical for quality care. All nurses including students should receive clinical nursing leadership education. Research pertaining to educational strategies on clinical leadership for nursing students remains sparse. The aim of this paper is to report the qualitative evaluation of a co-constructed educational intervention on clinical nursing leadership, developed for 1st year preregistration nursing students. The research question was "what are the components of an educational intervention that support the development of clinical nursing leadership in 1st year nursing students?". The intervention included videos, brainstorming, journal entries on students' clinical leadership paired with the observation of a nurse's clinical leadership. A research and development model guided the study. Focus groups and individual interviews were conducted with 23 students and 6 educators who tested the intervention. Thematic analysis revealed three intervention components that supported learning: visual examples at the student's level, observation of role models and animated discussions in small groups. Visual examples and observation of role models supported learning by expanding student's initial views of nursing beyond a technical role to one that is embedded with clinical nursing leadership. Animated discussions in small groups helped students learn to speak up and be open to other's opinions.
Keywords: Leadership; Learning; Nursing; Qualitative research; Students.
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